Friday Pet Blogging

It's my understanding that somewhere -- buried in the minutia of blogging regulations (33 USC 928, et seq) -- there is a requirement that every blog must participate in "Friday Pet Blogging". Unfortunately, having set this up on a Friday, and being without benefit of a digital camera, I will have to throw myself on the mercy of the court. Or maybe I'll borrow the camera from the office tomorrow.

Instead, a pet update.

Emily (the Lab) is still chewing on pig's ears, shoes, toes under blankets, and me. She also enjoys sitting across the top of the armchair... a trick she learned from the cat.

Jenna the cat (as opposed to Jenna and NotJenna) has developed a new game with the dog. For lack of a better term, we call it "Lick and Slap". Emily licks Jenna, Jenna slaps Emily, Emily licks Jenna, and so on... for 20 minutes at a stretch. There is no blood drawn because Jenna was declawed (a procedure I don't agree with).

Oh, and Linda and I try to share a queen-size bed with both of them. Jenna and Emily are totally comfortable, Linda has about 12" on one edge, and I have 3" on the other edge. Oh, well.

Been A While....

As my "Cat'lic" friends in the old hometown of NYC might say, "Bless me, fadda, for I have sinned. It's been six weeks since my last post."


Since I'm like CommanderGuy in that things are never, ever my fault, I can only throw myself on the mercy of my readers, with an explanation. It's been quite busy at work (which, from the bosses' point of view, is A Good Thing), plus I'm trying to get another business off the ground, plus we're still stuck with dial-up at the spacious yet luxurious 618Rants Galactic Headquarters.


Obviously, time to play some catch-up.


Part I - Pet Blogging... or, the Ministry of Homeland Security strikes again


Most important things first. As previously noted, the Ministry of Homeland Security strictly enforces the Federal Pet Blogging and Associated Silliness Act of 2002. I just received a threat-o-gram from them, pointing out that my last pet blogging occurred on January 14. They... implied... that I'd better get my poop in a group before they disappear me to Club Fed - Gitmo.


Emily, our Lab, has a slight problem. She has a severe case of OCD -- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder -- about chasing her tennis ball. She'd be out there 24-7 if she could. We found a gadget called a Chuck-It, which launches a ball further than my tired old arm ever could. Anywho, she's coming back from about her 83rd full-speed dash into the back yard, when Joey pounced on her. Yup, that big mean 12-pound catbeast terrorized my poor little 65-pound dog.

Joey, in a typical "Dreaded Wild Kitty of Borneo" pose

Speaking of Joey (the cat), he's pissed at me because Mr Bailey (a local feral cat) decided to de-feralize himself and moved in with us. Bailer, as he's not so affectionately known, thinks he's maintaining his feral street cred by only snuggling with Mommy when I'm not around. But Mommy finks him out. Bailster sneaks into the house underneath Emily, jumps on the bed, grabs the wife's hand in all four paws, curls around the hand like a lobster, and purrs contentedly for 3-4 hours of belly-skritching.

Mr. Bailey, on the porch, expressing his disdain for becoming a house-cat

Politics and Other Less-Fun Stuff

The always-talented, always informative Red Girl, Blue State has a whole slew of posts up, all of which are worth reading. Topics range from Sirius Radio (which I had thought about getting till I read this), and the hypocritical mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjits, to CommanderGuy and a pat on the back for a handful of Rethugs (Hagel, Coleman, Sununu, Smith, Warner, Collins and Snowe for voting for Webb's amendment to the Defense Authorizations Bill, and Bond for voting to suspend the Pentagon's use of a sleaze tactic to cheat injured vets out of benefits they earned).

Disaster Preparedness and Other Stuff We Wish We Didn't Have to Worry About


Been a lot of articles, both in the Tubes and in the dead-tree sector, on disaster preparedness. As I get through them, I'll do additional posts on items of interest.



And, In Parting, A Sign of My Deep Admiration for CommanderGuy Decider

Trying to Catch Up

First off, let me apologize for the lack of posting the last couple of months. The lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and I packed up all our belongings and left the state of Michigan -- with its varied and unfortunate assortment of lay-offs, corrupt politicians, etc -- and moved halfway across the country, to Maine.

Since then, I have been busy as heck finding a job, buying a car (well, truck, in this case), trying to get a training business up and running, and joining the local volunteer fire department.

It's been a busy couple of months, and not just in the personal life.

Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (who, along with his former chief of staff/lover, are facing twelve felony counts) is still fighting for his political life.

We have lost both George Carlin and Larry Harmon (the most famous Bozo the Clown).

Jurassic Pork seems to have hung up his spurs (again), since "Welcome to Pottersville" no longer exists on Blogger. The folks at Daily Kos are even more into their "we love us, we're the greatest, and the rest of you suck" lifestyle.

On the political front in Maine, Democratic Congressman Tom Allen handily won the Democratic primary for the upcoming Senate election, where he will be facing off against long-time incumbent Susan Collins (who, like John McCain, is considered by a "maverick", but always reliably votes the Bushevik line). s I recall, Allen got more votes than his five competitors combined. Additionally, some recent polls are showing Collins at less than 50% approval, for the first time. I hope to be able to do more writing about the contest over the next couple of weeks.

Emily (our Lab) and Joey (the cat) have settled in quite well. Two people and a Labrador do not fit easily into a double bed. This I have learned the hard way: Emily has kicked my ass onto the more on more than one occasion.

Discovered yesterday that the new Jeep Liberty -- which isn't all that big -- has a 6-cylinder engine and gets 15 mpg. The '99 Chevy Tahoe I bought has an 8-cylinder engine and gets 18-20 mpg. Of course, at $4.25/gallon, it isn't much of a difference.

Well, since it is now ten minutes before 11:00 PM (that's 10:50 PM Celsius), I am going to bed.

Special Guest Blogger: Emily

Hi, furless ones, this is Emily. I'm Mr618's celebrated Labrador whom you may have read about, back when Mom and Dad thought about things like pet blogging, instead of all that political crap.

A couple of days ago, dad was reading Michael Morse's blog, Rescuing Providence. Captain Morse had a piece about my cousin, Mr. Wilson. Cousin Wilson allegedly asked, "What's a dog?"

It appears Cousin Wilson forgot what the Head Beagle told us as pups, which is that we give the humans a reason to live. Humans, of course, are significantly inferior to canines, but they do serve a useful purpose in that their opposable thumbs allow them to open cans and bags more efficiently than we can with our teeth.

Captain Morse, God (which is, after all, dog spelled backwards) created dogs so firemen could have heroes too.

Despite what the beer companies (and Ben Franklin) say, dogs are the REAL proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Oh, and here's a picture of Cousin Wilson:

I guess his hair got so white worrying about his dad. Not easy trying to take care of a fire captain in a big city like Providence, I guess. (Hey, Cousin Wilson, when my dad comes down with lobsters for your dad, I'll send down a nice fresh Maine bone for ya, 'kay?)

Response: Pet Blogging Update

Hello! Mrs. 618 here. I do feel at times like the gate keeper for the animals. Am I starting my own cat colony? Not intentionally. If the farmer up the road believed in spaying and neutering, things would be a lot better. And you will not see us on 'Animal Cops Detroit," although if 618 had his way, we would be the humane society. While I love animals, I feel it very important to stress that, like children, each house has its limit. I love Emily & Joey, and we are still working with Mr. Bailey, to see if he will integrate into our little family, but both he and Joey need to be nutted as 618 refers to it.

Ms. Sadie is always a welcome guest; if she can't sneak in she has learned to tap on the window then go to the door to be let in.

I wish I had had my camera the other day as we had an awesome Kodak moment: Emily the lab was stretched out on her side on the bed, then Joey snuggled into her belly on his side and Ms. Sadie nicely spooned into his tummy. How blessed we are to have this odd little family, but it works. Mama always said I should live on a farm, lots of kids and lots of pets to love. We're set with the pets... and the kids... well, that’s up to a higher power.

Much-Belated Update

First and foremost, the lovely yet talented Judy Hoffman* has a revised edition of her book Keeping Cool In The Hot Seat. If you ever have to deal with crisis communications -- even if you merely piss off your wife -- you need this book. It shows you how to get your message across without shooting yourself (or your organization) in the foot. Hint: "no comment" doesn't cut it.

Next, the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and I are getting settled in up here in Northern New England. The missus claimed this was even more like "cow country" than where we were before. True, there are fewer people, but here we can get DSL. I asked about DSL out in Michigan, and the phone company laughed.

Our Lab, Emily, and one cat, Joey, made the trip successfully. Bailey, the "feral" cat who adopted us, apparently understood what a 26-foot UHaul means. He took off two days before we left, and didn't re-appear until the day after we arrived here. Our former neighbors spotted him in their barn, where he has apparently established a residence in the hayloft. They're feeding him, and -- if we go out to visit Mom-in-law -- we may try to grab him then. he does like the lady of the house more than he likes me, so it might work. At least he's okay.

Look for pix of our new world headquarters, coming soon over most of this same blog.

Political commentary, This Date in Fire History, and other popular features will also be returning soon.

*UPDATE (to the update): BadTux pointed out that the link wasn't working. It should be now. Of course, if Blogger still doesn't like me, it's www.JudyHoffman.com.

Long Time, No See

...Although perhaps not long enough for some people...

I haven't been blogging for a number of reasons:

• Lack of time (still only working two days a week, but the fire department, rescue squad, and some other commitments are keeping me busy)
• So thoroughly disgusted at the political system (local and national) that I want to spit
• Not a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said by others (f'rinstance, BadTux)

I spent three weeks in Joplin, MO, with the Red Cross, doing medical outreach in the impacted areas of the city.  Quite a learning experience.  I've been through my share of hairy, nasty situations, but never have I seen such complete devastation as I did in that poor city.  On the other hand, the spirit of the folks in Joplin isn't defeatist.  Hell, it's just barely bruised.  Those folks are some tough old Midwesterners, I'll tell you that.

The job situation sucks, as does the economy.  Screw you very much, Mr Preznit Shrub with all your tax cuts for the wealthy, to "create jobs." Create jobs, my fat ass.  The only jobs created have been for defense lawyers, Mergers and Acquisitions types, and pool boys.  Oh, and the resorts where the banks invest their TARP funds.

It's hard to be creative or even coherent -- never mind amusing -- when you're wondering if you're going to be able to pay the car insurance.  And before the Tea Baggers start hootin' 'bout "iffin y'all caint afferd it, y'all shouldn't be drivin," a vehicle is an absolute necessity in Maine.  There is no public transportation ouytside of the three largest cities.  Even our frickin' state capitol doesn't have bus service.

We're surrounded by the brain-dead morans of the Tea Bagger movement here, along with their hangers-on, the birthers, creationists, and all the rest of the scum.  We even have the John Birch Society making a come-back (buncha racist motherfuggers that they are).

Only passably-good news is that the pets are doing okay (remember the mandatory pet-blogging?  Yeah, what we haven't done in like three years).  Emily the Labrador and Joey the cat adjusted well to the new 618Rants World HQ in Maine.  We even adopted a certified pre-owned cat for the Crazy Cat Lady In Training... err, the lovely yet talented Mrs618.

Some of my favorite bloggers have retired, most without notice. Just stop by their blog one day and realize it hasn't been updated in 2 years (which makes me feel a little better).

Politics doesn't change, it still attracts the slimy, the scuzzy, the corrupt.  Law enforcement still attracts the power-hungry, the "big-gun-making-up-for-the-small-dick" crowd, business still attracts the "screw you, I got mine" crowd. Rethuglicans are still lying, cheating, whoremongers, and the Biblt-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjit crowd are still mouth-breathing in-bred "Deliverance" NASCAR gun nut fruitloops.

I can't wait to wake up and find the whole last 11 years has been a horrible nightmare.

I feel kinda like Bob Newhart, in the "Newhart" 20th anniversary show: "I dreamt I ran a Vermont inn..." before Larry, Darryl, and Darryl step out of the elevator.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...

...Spam, eggs, and Spam...

The ever-thoughtful spammers have figured out a sure-fire way to ensure I delete their messages unseen:

From: Fox News Network
To: Mr618
Subject: Instant Weight Loss

Now, if they only knew just how much I despise Faux "News," they'd realize the folly of sending me their crap.

For more on spam (the crappy email stuff, that is, not the crappy canned meat by-products that even Emily won't eat), see Randy Cassingham's Spam Primer.

Friday "I'm Really Pissed at You Guys" Pet Blogging

Yesterday was one of "those" Thanksgivings.

You know, the ones where you have to work (ah, the joys of being in emergency services and related fields), and have to deal with coworkers who don't have lives but really need to get them. Twelve fun-filled hours (during which I did additional research on the infamous Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, about which, more on the 28th).

After work, I headed down to the lovely yet talented Mrs 618's lovely yet talented mother's house for dinner. Finished dinner and dropped off some goodie bags (sandwiches, chips, mac salad, cookies) at the local police department as a "Thank You" for the rest of the folks working.

Back to the MIL's house for cheesecake (hey, gimme a break, I'm a New Yorker), pumpkin pie, and the rest of that good stuff. The lovely yet talented missus and I headed back to the spacious yet luxurious Chez618 about 11:00.

When we got home, we crawled into bed and commenced cuddling.

Until, that is, Joey and Mr Bailey both decided to attack my feet under the blankets. Then Emily decided it was "Labrador Love Time" and shoved in between us.

Mustang Bobby has the right idea.

Merry Christmas, One and All

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted, and I appreciate the people who stop by every day. You know who you are.

From the lovely yet talented Mrs 618, and from Emily, Joey, Mr Bailey, and yr hmbl and obt svt,


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

See you in a few days!

Some Changes at 618Rants

I have spent virtually my entire working life trying to help people, to make them safe, to make sure they go home to their loved ones at night. All too often, though, I put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few, or of the one, as Mr. Spock might say. My career in law enforcement and private-sector security cost me two marriages, a couple of intervening relationships, and almost cost me my life. It left me an alcoholic, vicious, mean, bigoted bastard; it took me almost twenty years to recover from that (I haven't done any drinking since 1989, and had it not been for the lovely yet talented Mrs618, I might never have recovered).

More recently, I've been engaged in firefighting and yet another round in EMS (my third). Because these are paid-on-call jobs, they weren't as time-consuming as police work, but I still tried my very best.

No more.

A couple of things happened yesterday, including hearing my alcoholic, psychologically-abusive father tell my drunk junkie brother that HE was the reliable one... after the lovely yet talented Mrs618 and I left a pair of $50,000-a-year jobs and moved to Maine to take care of my parents. After I've been fixing their house -- at MY expense -- for six years. After putting myself in the hospital a bunch of times with exhaustion, chest pains, bad knees, pneumonias, and a few things that looked like strokes or heart attacks.

Plus, I've been getting some really snotty emails from the local logistics person at the Red Cross, who seems to feel it is MY job to verify all the logistical issues for a class (if that is the case, why do we pay a full-time logistics person? And what does she do to earn her keep?).

I lay awake all night, thinking about things. About 4:00 AM, I felt a door close, then I got really cold, then everything just kind of mellowed out.

I had made my decisions:

• No more caring about anybody other than the lovely yet talented Mrs618, Emily (the Lab), Joey (the cat), and my son.
• I will continue to do the best job I can with the FD and EMS, but that's all it is now, a job. If you live, fine. If you don't, well, sucks to be you.
• Someone else can do the 14 or 15 different functions I'd been filling at the Red Cross for the last six years, including getting up in the middle of the night to go to house fires (I'll still go for the FD, cause they pay me).
• No feelings, no emotion, no empathy, no sympathy. Talk to the hand, dude.
• Ditto with their cultural norms, belief systems, languages, religions or other ethnic crap. You live in the United States, you adjust to OUR way of life. You don't like it? Go back to Trashcanistan.
• I'm not going to worry about watching my tongue anymore. Fat-Ass Paul LePage is a fat-assed teabagging douchbag. So is his fat-assed daughter. So is Rafael Eduardo Hijo de Puta Cruz, Canadian-born anchor baby spawn of cigar-sucking Cuban émigré, Castro supporter and Desi Arnaz wannabe Rafael Bienvenido Chinga tu Madre Cruz. So is Bible Spice and her oxygen-thief brood. And all the other cretinous yahoos who need to chlorinate their little corners of the gene pool, like the various Kardashians: Kleenex, Klepto, Klamato, and Klimax. Half of those fucks oughta be shot. Hell, most of 'em oughta be shot.

I don't know if this blog is going to continue. I may post again, I may not. I don't know.

For those who have stopped by and commented in the past -- the folks like BadTux, Jurassic Pork, The Dark Wraith*, skippy the bush kangaroo, the gone-but-not-forgotten Firestarter5 -- thank you. You gave me the encouragement to continue, and you let me think that maybe I had something worthwhile to offer. For the newer folks, the medical and fire service folks like Michael Morse, Justin Schorr, and Curt Varone, we may not agree on everything, but we tried. By God, we tried. To the folks on the old Yahoo wildlife groups, DLP in particular, thank you for the encouragement (and the occasional ball-busting).

BTW, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jurassic Pork and his missus are in pretty tough financial straits; if you can toss a few coins his way, please do. They really do deserve to have a roof over their heads.

* The Dark Wraith has been missing in action for a couple of years now, and Google is now showing his old site (and the companion site BigBrassBlog) as possibly infected with malware, so no links. DW, if you should happen to see this, you are missed. Same for Firestarter5.

_

Pet Blogging Update

Yeah, I know, it's been months since we've done any pet-blogging here at 618Rants...

First and foremost, our condolences go out to Kevin Drum, formerly of CalPundit and now of Washington Monthly's Political Animal, on the loss of his cat, Jasmine, who died on January 4th. From what I've seen around the tubes, Jasmine pretty much started the whole cat-blogging genre.

On the local scene, I woke up the other day and looked down the bed at the Labrador and both cats. It wasn't until I was in the shower that a thought struck me: we only have one cat. Got out of the shower, dried off, went into the bedroom and counted the cats again: one, two. Woke up the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and asked her how many cats we had.

"One, you jerk, you know that. Go away and let me sleep."

I asked her to count, and she came up with... two.

Turns out the second cat was Sadie, who (allegedly) lives next door. We figure she snuck in underneath Emily before we went to bed. Sadie, who certainly knows a sucker for a fuzzy face, is wildly enamored of the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 (much as I am, too, of course) and sneaks in whenever she can for a quick cuddle.

I attempted to pick Sadie up to put her back outside, but she utilized a cat's mystical ability to increase her weight from her normal 10 pounds, to slightly more than that of a fully-loaded Boeing 747.

I decided to let her sleep.

When I got home that evening, I got yet another surprise. Our cat Joey, and Sadie were both on the porch. Along with Mr. Bailey, a feral who's trying to "de-feralize" himself by moving in with us, Sadie's brother, and two other short-hair Maine coons.

Six cats. All similar in appearance. All trying to get into the house.

I expect to see myself on "Animal Cops Detroit" one of these days.

Just To PROVE I'm Back...

An admittedly much-belated cat-n-dog post...

A few days ago, the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and I got back from a trip, and found the neighbor's cats on our doorstep, hanging around, looking for food (of course).

Except one cat wasn't the neighbor's. She was a stray who happened upon the scene.

Needless to say, we now have a new-to-us, certified pre-owned cat, Tia.



You might notice a certain similarity between Tia and her predecessor, Jenna:


This could be the start of a pattern... except there's me:
(And I wonder why I can never get into Dumbya's appearances...)

Of course, Emily thought she was all done with "those creatures". She saw Tia and gave me one of "those" looks:


"Aww, Dad, why's ya hafta go and do that?!?"

In Memoriam: Jenna, 1992-2006

It’s not been a good day today around the Rants household. Our 14-year-old cat Jenna crossed the rainbow bridge this afternoon, to the place where she could be free of the pain that has been afflicting her.

My lovely yet talented wife (and I was using the phrase long before Tbogg) got Jenna when she was just a kitten. A friend called the missus (who was not yet a missus, of course) and said two stray kittens had followed him home, and he didn’t know what to do. Jason couldn’t keep them because he already had two cats. The future missus suggested that he call another friend, who promptly adopted both kittens. The missus went to visit this friend a couple of days later… and came home with Jenna.

Despite my being a dog person, even I could tell Jenna was a sweet cat, even though I met her late in life when she was already well past her prime.

I don’t think Jenna ever really forgave mommy for bringing home “that stray human” back in 2003 (when we got married), and I know she never forgave me for bringing home Emily (the Labrador). Every once in a while, though, Jenna would deign to sit in my lap (usually when I was trying to work on the computer or read), and would allow me to administer a “bilateral four-knuckle neck rub.”

Those of us who are lucky enough to share a life with a non-human-American should take a little extra time and give our companions a little extra love. Remember that pets love their humans unconditionally (well, at least dogs do; cats are a different matter). We owe it to them to make their lives as comfortable as possible.

If any of my 3-4 readers would like to share memories of their pets, please feel free to do so.

Snoopy Only Has a DOG House...

But I have a whole house.
A new way out? The escapee thinks he has found a new way to break free until he realized he was about 15 feet off the ground and left his cape in his other collar. He then thought he would attempt to enlist the aid of his friend
Angus (618 and I refere to him as Romeo and our Emily as Juliet as they so enamoured with one another)


618 Rants arrived home with them greeting him over our back door, hollered in the house for me to get out here now.These guys scard the crap out of us, but I couldn't resist grabbing the camara, we talked them back in the house but the super beagle wandered back out. We waited out side to keep them from jumping, then their mom and dad came home and brought them down stairs . All is well that ends well, and the lovepups are off to play.

Pet Blogging Update

No pictures this week. Jenna the cat (as opposed to "Jenna and not-Jenna") has been hiding all week, as the lovely-yet-talented Mrs 618 has been hanging with the three-year-old from next door. Emily (the Labrador) isn't feeling too well, to the point where the missus rolled a tennis ball for her... and she ignored it. This from the dog who wants to play ball 24-7.

I figure either she ate someone-- err, something that didn't agree with her, or she's coming down with some bug.

Or she saw preznit on TV.

Tis' the Season...

Happy Holidays
From
The 618 Rants Family

Ok, I'm not sure what is politically correct to say anymore with all the shit being slung around Capitol Hill. All I know is I want everyone to enjoy this season what ever it is you celebrate, just do it and feel a bit of joy.
What you are about to witness may actually may make you smile or giggle a bit,( in a sugary way) and I know that is not something that 618 promotes. The kid's wanted to be a part of wishing you a happy holiday too, and they like the fact that they are now world famous, especially Jake, he pranced about for an hour after being told he was now officially on the internet. So here they are pretending to be Santa's reindeer.

As you can see, Fang was not too thrilled to be wearing the antlers,
but Emily as usual took it all in stride.

As you can see Jenna was having no part of these reindeer games, although she
does love
hiding under the tree


So from our family to yours have a wonderful holiday weekend !